HONOLULU — The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) today announced
the resignation of State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) administrator
Pua Aiu. The announcement follows the release last Thursday of a report by the
National Parks Service (NPS) that was critical of the division’s efforts under
a two-year corrective action plan to address operational problems that
jeopardize continued federal funding from NPS. Aiu has been the SHPD
administrator for five years.

“We believe that SHPD has made
progress in a number of areas, including hiring of qualified staff and
addressing a backlog of review and compliance tasks,” said William J. Aila,
Jr., DLNR Chairperson. “However, we take this report seriously, and given the
importance of SHPD to the state, we need to change the leadership in order to
move forward to implement the recommendations. So we’ve accepted Pua’s
resignation, and are working on a process to select a new administrator in the
next three months.”

“The State Historic
Preservation Division is important to the preservation and protection of
historic and cultural sites of Hawaii. It also plays a significant role in the
state’s economy. Addressing and balancing these complex issues is the job of
the SHPD administrator and staff,” said Aila. “We plan to bring in an interim
administrator by the end of July, and at the same time set up a selection
committee to review applications and interview candidates. We invite qualified
applicants to submit their resumes to the Chairperson atWilliam.J.Aila@hawaii.gov”